University Life Council
Minutes of Meeting
Feb. 4, 2008
Terrace Lounge
Present:
Phil Erner, Lily Garcia, Bill Reese, Gladys Santiago, Joan Savitt (Chair), Kehe
Zhu
Regrets:
Michelle Forte, Candace Merbler, John Murphy, Brenda Seckerson, Robert
Yagelski
Meeting Commenced at 4:30pm, following the Diversity Audit/Visionary meeting.
Minutes from the Nov. 19th, 2007 meeting were approved.
Chair’s Report
Chair Savitt stated that Interim President George Philip is very interested in the diversity of
campus and therefore she believed it was very important for the council to have attended the
Diversity Audit/Visionary meeting.
Chair Savitt mentioned that she had served on the Interim Provost selection committee.
The committee submitted the short list of candidates for the position to the President.
Committee Updates
Residential Life
1. A report of the Residence Life Committee’s recent meeting was distributed earlier to the
council and appears below:
SUMMARY REPORT
Of Residential Life sub-committee of the University Life Council
December 7, 2007
Present: Adam Zonder, Michelle Forte, Bill Reese and John Murphy
Guests: Laurie Garafola, Carol Perrin and Joan Savitt
Chairman Murphy welcomed Laurie and Carol indicating that our committee would like to be a
resource to Residential Life and that we are sensitive to not engaging in micro-management of
their department. Laurie and Carol were asked to attend the meeting to help the committee
understand issues related to short term housing for International students in mid August of each
year.
By way of background, Laurie explained that International freshmen students are housed in
Eastman Tower on State Quad because that building remains open during recess. International
transfer students are housed in Stuyvesant Tower, Dutch Quad and on Alumni Quad for the same
reasons. She indicated that she does provide limited temporary housing on Alumni Quad in two
eight person bunk rooms for students who don’t want on-campus housing but have not yet found
off campus accommodations. This space is very limited. There are presently no other locations
on campus to accommodate students temporarily as they search for off campus housing.
There was discussion regarding the impact of students in temporary housing and quality of
student life for these students. It was pointed out that international Student orientation begins
August 17th and there is a need for temporary housing for International students between August
10 and August 25, when classes begin in the fall 2008.
At the present time there is no graduate housing available as the increased number of freshman
student admitted required Residential Life and the Executive Cabinet to eliminate graduate
student housing which had taken up approximately 150 beds. Graduate students on Empire
Commons were grandfathered in and there are presently approximately 60 graduate students on
Empire Commons.
Laurie gave a report on special interest housing and Living Learning Communities. Currently,
we have 120 frosh and 70 sophomores in the Honors College which is housed in Melville and
Steinmetz Halls on State Quad. Project Renaissance is located in Mohawk Tower and houses
approximately 370 freshmen students. New this fall are three Living Learning Communities on
Dutch Quad facilitated by three faculty. These include the China House, Francophone In
addition three students live in the “Beyond Hollywood and Bollywood” living learning
community designed for students passionate about the world of cinema and tied to AWSS 361
“Gender and nation in World Cinema: New Hong Kong Cinema.” Laurie pointed out that plans
are under way to offer additional Living Learning communities for next fall including Woman’s
Leadership and Substance Free/Wellness community. Laurie encouraged members of the
committee to promote faculty involvement in our Living Learning Communities.
2. Chair Savitt then stated that she had attended the Residence Life sub-committee meeting
and commented on the topics that were discussed which included:
Residence Life is trying to identify options for short-term housing, this is very difficult, but they
keep looking. Currently, they are working on rehabilitating dorms, which limits available living
space. In addition the New York Giants occupy space during the summer. Chair Savitt
mentioned that there is nothing available for this summer, but possibly after.
Kehe Zhu then added that there are also faculty housing concerns and that there is
nothing to offer visiting professors.
Chair Savitt mentioned that there used to be a suite on Freedom Quad for visiting
professors.
Kehe Zhu asked if there was anything the committee could do to which Chair Savitt
responded that this was why we approached Residence Life. So far there is nothing we
can do this year, but that the council hopes to have a further response from Residence Life with
some possible alternatives.
Campus Concern
Phil Erner mentioned that graduate students have remarked over the drab color found on campus.
Library Update
Chair Savitt mentioned that Candace Merbler had reported seeing many students in the library
this semester looking for copies of their textbooks in the library because many of the textbooks
had not yet arrived at the bookstore.
Transportation
Lily Garcia mentioned that there is concern over using the buses to get to campus during
the morning. She stated that the buses are overcrowded and this causes people to often
miss the bus for their classes. Students feel that there are not enough public and University buses
for students.
Chair Savitt informed her that ULC did not handle this but that she would refer it to the proper
body.
Next Meeting is March 3, 2008 at 3:30 in the Terrace Lounge.
Meeting was adjourned at 4:50 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
Noah Simon, Recording Secretary